UW’s presidential search missed the mark on transparency

The next president of the University of Washington, our state’s largest public university and a leading research institution, in all likelihood will be … Candidate No. 2. That’s all we’ve known since Jan. 10, and that’s a problem.

The university’s Board of Regents on Jan. 10 emerged from hours of closed-door interviews with two finalists. Then they reconvened in public and selected Candidate No. 2 as president, pending background checks and salary negotiations. The university expects to disclose the candidate’s identity any day now.

Board Chair Blaine Tamaki said the regents are trying to balance their competing duties of transparency to the public and confidentiality to the job candidates. But UW’s selection process was tilted in favor of confidentiality, hence the pending mystery hire.

That’s troubling for a public university. Outside observers – that would be most of us – are unable to judge for ourselves the final vetting process and the alternative finalists. We just have to take the regents’ word for it.

Unveiling the next university president after that person is essentially hired also precludes workplace colleagues from volunteering information about the candidate’s performance, for better or worse, in previous jobs.

Unfortunately, confidential presidential searches are now commonplace among public universities. Washington State University regents in December said they narrowed their search for a successor to President Kirk Schulz to five finalists – all unidentified.

Much of the heavy lifting for the UW search was done by a search firm and an advisory committee of 16 people representing campus administrators, faculty and alumni, among others.

The committee admirably threw open the door to input from the campus community.But input before a presidential hire doesn’t make a secret selection at the end of the process any more transparent.

In Olympia, legislators should set transparency standards for presidential searches at our state’s public colleges and universities. Higher education celebrates open debate yet somehow condones anonymous finalists for the most important job on campus.

We hope the university’s regents chose wisely, with the next occupant of Gerberding Hall having a long and successful tenure. We also hope the next time UW needs a president, it will put a higher priority on its paramount constituency – the public.